One of the most important requirements for a thriving urban neighborhood is a properly-designed urban grocery store. This is one area where Fort Worth has not been entirely successful, though things are looking up. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the current state of urban groceries in Fort Worth, and what improvements can be made.
Currently, Fort Worth’s major urban grocer is the Super Target located at Montgomery Plaza in the Cultural District. When the old Montgomery Ward building was redeveloped, the huge shipping center behind it was demolished, and the land cleared for new development. While the redevelopment of the Montgomery Ward building itself has been of high quality and good design, the site plan behind it is woefully inappropriate to its urban location. Super Target built one of their conventional big-box concrete tilt-wall buildings, separated from the Montgomery Ward building by a large (though heavily landscaped) parking lot. The Super Target features two entrances, both facing said parking lot, and presents nothing but an essentially blank wall to Carroll Street, which runs alongside the site. The presence of the Super Target is great for the area, but its design leaves much to be desired. It is designed to cater mainly to automotive-based shoppers, at the cost of alienating pedestrian traffic. With the rapid urban development boom in the Cultural District, this design is very regrettable.
For an example of a well-designed urban grocer, take this – the Whole Foods in Portland, Oregon:
Rather than building behind an expanse of parking, this Whole Foods built right up to the streets. Parking is placed below the building. The Whole Foods itself occupies the first floor and a mezzanine, while the upper floor is office space. The top of the building is a large refrigeration system. Transporting purchased goods to customer vehicles (for those who drive to the store – many customers walk) is accomplished via twin escalators – one for people, one for shopping carts. Employees can assist with loading goods into vehicles.
This Whole Foods is an example of how urban grocers should be. It presents a friendly, permeable facade to the sidewalks, with windows and multiple entrances. It places parking out of sight, and also features a cafe and coffee shop. Rather than isolate itself behind parking filled with speeding cars, the building is inviting to pedestrians. At Montgomery Plaza, a better site plan would have involved creating streets and blocks behind the Montgomery Ward building and using one of those blocks to build a Super Target similar to this Whole Foods.
In addition, many urban grocers feature facades with outward-facing storefronts, creating a varied streetscape not unlike most other buildings in urban areas.
In smaller-scale urban neighborhoods such as Fort Worth South, grocers can be introduced in smaller forms. Despite going against the “bigger is better” mantra associated with suburban grocers, many urban grocers find great success in smaller and more pedestrian-friendly stores. Take, for example, the Copps grocery store in the New Urbanist town of Middleton Hills, Wisconsin:
A smaller building, scaled appropriately to the neighborhood, with a welcoming pedestrian-friendly design and out-of-sight parking. This sort of design is very effective in neighborhoods such as Fort Worth South.
In future articles, we’ll take a look at other urban needs, and how we may go about filling them.
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